This application is related to the following applications filed on even date herewith in the name of Trafton et al.:
1. U.S. application Ser. No. 09/931,420 field on Aug. 16, 2001, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,416,166, and entitled xe2x80x9cINK CARTRIDGE WITH ALIGNMENT FEATURES AN METHOD OF INSERTING CARTRIDGE INTO A PRINTER RECEPTACLExe2x80x9d;
2. U.S. application Ser. No. 09/931,521 filed on Aug. 16, 2001, now allowed, and entitled xe2x80x9cINK CARTRIDGE WITH MEMORY CHIP AND METHOD OF ASSEMBLINGxe2x80x9d and
3. U.S. application Ser. No. 09/931,313 filed on Aug. 16, 2001, now allowed, and entitled xe2x80x9cINK CARTRIDGE WITH INTERNAL INK BAG AND METHOD OF FILLINGxe2x80x9d.
The present invention relates to ink jet printing systems that make use of replaceable ink cartridges. More particularly, the present invention relates to a replaceable ink cartridge that includes a feature that is oriented in a particular fashion as to identify it with a particular color of ink contained within it.
With ink jet printers using a remotely located ink cartridge comes the ability to increase the volume of the ink cartridge without impacting the ability of the print bead carriage to perform its function during the printing process. Typically the mass of the carriage supporting the print heads needs to be reduced so as to minimize the inertial load on it during acceleration. The ink is supplied to the print heads using flexible tubing. The remotely located ink cartridge is usually joined with the printer using a receiver which guides and aligns the ink cartridge to interface components such as an ink access point and electrical contacts. Care must be taken to prevent the insertion of a specific color of ink contained within the ink cartridge into a receiver slot intended for another color. If this were to occur, cross contamination of the two color inks would result requiring an extensive clean and purge process.
One concept (U.S. Pat. No. 5,666,146) preventing the inadvertent insertion of the wrong color ink cartridge into a receiver includes using tabs protruding from the sides of the ink cartridge that engage a track formed in the sheet metal or plastic receiver housing. The tab location or number of tabs is varied from color to color preventing insertion of the wrong color in the wrong receiver. This adds cost to the ink cartridge due to the need to mold unique ink cartridge housings for each color ink.
Another known concept uses uniquely shaped cartridge housings for each color preventing the insertion of the wrong color into the receiver slot. This also adds cost to the product by requiring unique tooling for each of the specific color housing.
Still another concept (U.S. Pat. No. 5,138,344) involves creating a tab like feature of a particular shape and varying the size of it from color to color. This, too, requires unique tooling for the manufacture of each color ink cartridge.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide an ink cartridge with an improved structure for providing color identification or discrimination so the same parts can be used in ink cartridges containing different colors of ink and yet maintain the discrimination function. This and other objects of the invention are accomplished with the novel features of a cartridge structure and methods as set forth in the independent claims appended hereto.
The invention, and its objects and advantages, will become more apparent in the detailed description of the preferred embodiments presented below when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.